Sega's Western CEO Isn't Interested In Saturn And Dreamcast Mini Consoles

Just a "muhstalgia" cash in company and a Sanic factory apparently.
Sega as usual shoots it self in the foot.
People are willing to pay money for being able to play these games in a cheap convenient and legal way.

Hasn't stopped them churning out their 16 bit mini consoles. They're not a retro company sure but their hardware is. It's really a shame they aren't open to exposing more people to the Saturn and Dreamcast because they never got their day in the sun. The libraries were fantastic. They just use the brands to exploit for merch now. Considering they're relaunching JSR and Crazy Taxi it would make sense to me, plus buying for these consoles is a huge cost. I want SA2.

Man who's job it is to make money doesn't want peoples money. lol.

I am not sure I want a new mini console, but I would love if they put their Master System/Game Gear/Mega Drive/Saturn/Dreamcast or Arcade games in Steam, PSN etc.

Oh, wait they had some of them there and they delisted them...

His response reminds me of when Don Mattrick said to Xbox One gamers who wanted to play 360 games on the new console: "It's called the Xbox 360". It comes off as dismissive.

He wants to produce future games, which I'm more than fine with, but why does it have to be one or the other? Why not both?

"we want to deliver something new"

Now here's another five Yakuza games.

Honestly, though, a company can walk and chew gum at the same time. Nintendo (for all its faults) knows very well how to celebrate its history while continually churning out new and interesting experiences.

Utsumi does SEGA a disservice by predicating his decisions on a false choice. Just another reminder that CEOs are paid a lot of money for being surprisingly bad at their jobs.

I'm not sure it's even up to him since he's CEO of America and Europe. Just say no comment or no plans at this time. Saying you're not a retro company when you bank so much money from your back catalog is just silly. You can be retro and make new things. Ask Nintendo. Ask Capcom. Oh, and ask Sega.

I think he realizes that you can't live off of nostalgia forever. The Genesis mini was a response to a trend and that trend is dying off.

Maybe Sega should replace this guy and their leadership here in America. Sega gave us half a dozen console ecosystems and near 2,500 games. That doesn't even get down to arcade machines!!!! We always seem to get the same 20 or so games from them in the form of reissues. People these days are still developing games for their hardware.

Sega, your fans want the deep cuts!! There is over 2,000 OTHER games that were released on those consoles.. So much so that Sega could easily take the Atari VCS approach and make an all digital console & distribution service and it would sell!!!! He'll that SuperSega dude is doing half the work for you right now!!! Sue them out of existence and takeover the process!!!! WE WILL BUY IT!!!!!

Even if SEGA took the same approach as Capcom and the Arcade Archives it would sell!!!

NSO isn't doing SEGA justice there is so much more that people are interested in. I'm sure the WiiWare/WiiU/DS/3ds store fronts moved bunches of those games!!!!

What ever happened to: "SEGA does what Nintendont"

To be honest I have the NES, SNES and Mega Drive mini and I never really play them. When you get to Saturn and Dreamcast and their controllers you'd be looking at more expensive devices to create, maybe with fairly limited audiences. I still own both consoles and grew up a SEGA fan, but I'd probably not even them. The Mega Drive mini is OK but has some noticable audio lag. I didn't buy the Mini 2, it was such a limited release and now it's far too expensive.

Delisting retro games and not continuing the SEGA AGES games as digital releases is perplexing though. There are so many great SEGA arcades thet have never seen home ports.

@RejectedAng3L
Oh god yes, I am so so so so so ***** tired of seeing the same 16 bit titles and sanic games getting rehashed til they are transparent.

Sega has a massive backlog In arcade Saturn And Dreamcast titles, which they just ignore.
If its not the Megadrive it might as well not exist to them anymore.

@hashkey Sarcasm, I hope. I've seen plenty of crazy takes on the internet though, so I'm not always sure anymore.

@KitsuneNight But isn't going in on minis also "muhstalgia"?

@RejectedAng3L @KitsuneNight Agreed. I prefer to own things versus a subscription service, but whatever form it takes, it should be persistent. They keep rebooting their retro line and then just rereleasing with fanfare the same games. GOG just recommitted to their "Good Old Games" campaign and promised to keep the games supported and running well in perpetuity. Time will tell if they do, but that's the kind of thing Sega should be doing with their legacy title (and, yes, branch out beyond the same 20 or so Genesis games).

@no_donatello
Remember Sega Forever and how that went nowhere ?
Sega Ages was actually their best stab at it so of course it was Japan only.

Sega has destroyed my interest in the Megadrive by rehashing the same set of games over and over again.
Because I am so sick of them.
And the Megadrive II was my first console, go figure.

"I want to embrace modern gamers.

We are not a retro company."

The problem with modern Sega right here in a nutshell: ignorance and incompetence. 😆

@no_donatello "GOG just recommitted to their "Good Old Games" campaign and promised to keep the games supported and running well in perpetuity."

They should already have been doing this! 😆

@KitsuneNight Indeed. Forever was kind of a failure from the start. We promise we're going to support the consoles you WANT, but for now, just these same Genesis games running worse than a free emulator. Ages, indeed, was quality work, but it was Switch only, which is the kiss of death for long term support. We know how abysmal Nintendo's track record is on supporting digital stores. Still waiting for them to do it right.

@Sketcz

That too much effort time and money for the casual gamer though.
They just want something easy to plug in turn on and play 10 min for their nostalgia hit.

They re not like the "hardcore" weirdo's like us who actually like to play these things for more then just a nostalgia novelty.

But newer retro games should have to rely on ancient hardware to play old games there is a place for mini consoles.
I really want to get in to the PC engine and the mini looks the part and has a great selection of games.

@no_donatello
"ackthually" Ages started on the Saturn and was then carried on through on the PS2.
The NX version is the third iteration, but it was Sega's best showing.
I just wish they ported the ps2 games as well.

@slider1983 They should. Hopefully they follow through on this, but we'll see. From my personal experience, Alone in the Dark The New Nightmare is a game I own from GOG which was no longer compatible with modern PCs. Apparently (have not had a chance to try) it has been updated and works now.

@slider1983
Thats actually the problem Sega has had for 30 years now ever since the schism between SOJ and SOA in 1994.

The company doesnt know what it wants to do, or even what its doing.
Half the time it just fart arses about.

@KitsuneNight haha, I know. I picked up Panzer Dragoon for PS2 when I visited Japan. And if I ever hope to have a complete US Saturn game collection, I will have to cough up a small fortune for Sega Ages on Saturn. :/

This is why they had a gold mine of classic IPs and hardly do anything with those. Took forever for us to get Virtua Fighter again. I doubt the series will return to its former glory though, this VF6 that they are planning to make feels like it'll just be a one time thing. This guy sounds like he could be the next Yuji Naka though if he manage to keep an attitude like this going forward. There's nothing wrong about bringing back some retro classics while also catering to the modern gamers.

Wow, what a fantastic article, so insightful, such in-depth analysis of the corporate mandate of Sega management. You've hit it out of the park again Damien.

@no_donatello Fool me thrice.

@KitsuneNight It ignores its own history or isn't even aware of it. They could be making money off new homebrew releases but because they don't want to spend money on a QA department we continue to get ugly off branded, non-uniform Mega Drive releases. Stuff like this incredibly annoys me.😆

Same as it ever was.

Sega of America can go to hell.

More fool them, this is why Sega needs new management that truly appreciates there incredible gaming heritage. All those legacy arcade titles begging to be reborn is sickening. Especially now with this comment from the powers that be. Chances are things won't be changing anytime soon. Oh & considering they bought out Technosoft, definitely no Thunderforce then.

@Serpenterror this is why this modern gaming industry sucks. They certainly don't give a toss about the older demographic of gamers who love retro gaming. It's all openworld. Micro transaction *****. Ran by corporate greed.

I don't wanna say Saturn and Dreamcast minis would sell much. They wouldn't. Many of those systems' games are gold, especially for an arcade audience, but the public consciousness (especially in the West) hasn't come back around to that... much as I hate it.

But it's kind of rude of Sega to nurture our interest in retro content and never commit to releasing it legally.

The year I almost gave up on video games due to fatigue trudging through epic campaigns, I rekindled my love for the medium with Sonic Mega Collection, followed by Sonic Gems Collection, which featured Sonic the Fighters on it. As fighting games go, that one was a horrendous rush-job, but it was eye-popping and accessible enough that yours truly rapidly developed an interest in Model 2 and 3 games-- which were naturally being rereleased for PS2 in Japan, but nowhere else.

Nowadays, we have that lone, passionate RGG Studio programmer leading the initiative to include an increasing breadth of old-skool arcade games in the Like A Dragon series, which is going to create more curious fans, just like a lazy cash-in on Sonic made me a curious fan. Sorry Utsumi, Sega is a retro company whether you like it or not. And their legacy sure as hell doesn't end with the Genesis.

We always knew Sega management had a very narrow view of their history (which is a big part of gaming history) and were never serious about their back catalog. Now they just come out and openly spit on their legacy.